


Soldier vs Spy

by TScorpio1701



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-04-24 07:15:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4910179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TScorpio1701/pseuds/TScorpio1701
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something is stirring in the Galaxy. A terror is coming to Terra Nova and only a Cerberus spy and now an N7 soldier knows where its about to strike. Join these two as they combat the terror from both behind the scenes and on the field of battle.</p><p>NSFW.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ch1: Pest Control

AN: This is a prequel to my Shiver ME Relays story that a commenter and beta-reader of mine, Neilin, suggested a while back.

“Speech”

 _Thoughts_ and _ship names_

_“Radio communications”_

** Soldier VS Spy **

**Ch1: Pest Control**

**Year: 2184, Location: Omega, Primary docking bay**

Omega. In the human language it was both the name of the last letter of the Greek alphabet and a euphemism for the end of all things and in the case of this particular cesspool was the last stop for a lot of lost souls. It was also a place that attracted the worst of the worst of both low and high class scum, and today a certain Spectre and his squad were here to do a little pest control.

Commander John Shepard, N7 Commando and Council Spectre, stepped off his ship, the SRC-class corvette SSV Sparrow, in full heavy Onyx Armour with the red N7 Honour Stripe along his right arm, packing a pair of M6 Carnifex heavy pistols on his hips, an M96 Mattock assault rifle and an M97 Viper sniper rifle on his upper back, and an N7 Crusader shotgun mounted to the small of his back, all modified to his specifications. He took in the unsavoury sights and sounds of Omega. The smell was that of decay and rot and seemed to violate his sinuses. Behind him two more marines stepped out of the airlock.

One of them was Lieutenant James Vega, an almost equally tall, but even more muscular man in heavy Onyx Armour. The other was a slightly shorter Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, roughly five foot ten wearing the female version of heavy Onyx Armour. Both had assault rifles and heavy pistols on their back and left hips respectively, but Vega also carried a shotgun on the small of his back and a grenade launcher right next to his assault rifle while Williams carried a sniper rifle opposite her own assault rifle.

Williams nose wrinkled in distaste as the smell of Omega hit her sinuses. “Perhaps we should leave our helmets on?!”

James snorted in agreement, while Shepard merely shrugged. “You’ll get used to it.”

Moments later a small salarian in a badly tattered business suit came up to them from a side alley. “Welcome to Omega. You’re new here aren’t ya?! I can always tell! Allow me to show you around.”

Shepard’s eyes narrowed at the Salarian. “Get lost scavenger. We can find our own way!” said Shepard as he and his companions muscled their way past.

An ugly sneer  crossed the salarian’s face as he drew a heavy pistol from behind his back, only for Shepard to snap around, draw his, and aim right between the salarian’s eyes. “Give me an excuse, please?” said Shepard and the salarian ran off in fright. “They never learn!”

The trio continued on into the station proper and the sights were not any better, in fact it just got worse. The Omega cityscape was the opposite of the Citadel’s. Dirty and decrepit with a dark red menacing glow about it. The trio continued on until they came to some sort of nightclub called Afterlife, a much cleaner place than either the Lieutenant or Gunnery Chief would have expected in a place like Omega. Above its neon pink sign a massive vertical holo-display was showing what Afterlife had to offer. Glamorous women, drinks and strippers to cater to most patrons tastes.

Shepard smiled slightly as he made his way up the short flight of steps where an elcor bouncer and a batarian doorman stood standing with a holo-pad. The batarian quickly noticed the trio bypass the line. “Halt! Get back in line, humans, or you’ll have to deal with my friend here!” the batarian sneered while the elcor moved forward with heavy thunderous steps.

Shepard’s eyes narrowed. “I’m on the guest list. The name’s Shepard, Spectre, with two plus!”

The batarian snorted as he made a show of looking over the guest list. “No it isn’t...” he gasped as Shepard gripped him by the lapels of his suit.

“Wrong answer. Check again!” Shepard growled.

The batarian finally recognised Shepard for who he was then checked the list again and waved off the elcor bouncer. “You’re right. Stand down. My mistake!”

The elcor grumbled slightly as he moved back to his spot by the door. “Annoyed resignation: Next time look closer before shooting your mouth off to a Spectre!”

The trio of humans entered the nightclub, and the change was immediate. The corridor into Afterlife was clean with holographic flames flowing over the curved ceiling and walls, casting a warm yet violent glow. At the end of the corridor the inner door opened up to a lively nightclub. It reminded Shepard of Chora’s Den back on the Citadel, only larger and the bar was situated at the three o’clock position along the wall from the main entrance with patrons swigging down various alcoholic drinks like it was water. In the centre was a raised circular stage with asari, female drell and human women dancing seductively to the heart pounding music around a series of poles. The asari and human dancers seemed to be competing to be the most seductive. A shaft covered in holograms was embedded in the centre with holograms of scantily clad asari, shaking their assets and dancing as if they were performing inside a glass cage.

“A million light years from Earth, and we walk into a sleazy nightclub filled with half naked women shaking their asses out on stage. I can’t tell if that’s funny or sad,” said Williams as she took in the sights.

“Maybe both, Gunny,” said Vega as he barely managed to keep his tongue in his mouth as he watched a particularly voluptuous asari shake her tits in his direction.

Shepard quickly stepped behind his subordinate and promptly slapped the younger marine on the back of his head. “Eyes front Lieutenant. Remember this is Omega and we are not on shore leave!”

The chastised Lieutenant nodded. “Aye sir.”

“I’ll be by the bar. Make sure he keeps his eyes on the job, Gunny,” said Shepard as he moved over to the bar.

“Don’t worry skipper. I’ll keep him in line!” said Williams with a slight smirk as she slapped her gloved hand on the almost mesmerized lieutenant’s shoulder.

Shepard quickly made his way over to the bar where a turian and a human were tending to it. He quickly took a vacant barstool close to the human, a young woman in a dark leather outfit who was twirling and throwing bottles of various forms of alcohol, much to the delight and awe of her drunken customers and the consternation of her turian co-worker. One was a blue rectangular bottle, human gin, the other was a simpler tall wine bottle and mixing a drink that he didn’t recognise. As soon as she was finished she came over to him with a friendly smile.

“What can I get you?” she asked.

Shepard leaned forward. “Batarian ale, uncut.”

She nodded and produced the ale, a green drink in a small glass, along with a small OSD shaped like a coaster. Shepard quickly paid her and pocketed the OSD before he drank down the ale in a single gulp and put the glass back down. He sat for a moment as he felt the alcohol burn delightfully down his throat. “The one good thing about the batarians. They make a mean ale!”

“Glad you appreciate our ale, human,” a gravelly voice said. Shepard turned around and saw the source of the voice. A big and mean batarian in heavy armour, with Aria’s symbol etched into his chest plate. “Aria wants to speak to you. I suggest you present yourself to her, now!”

Shepard let out a slight growl from the back of his throat. “I’ll present myself to her highness when I’m good and ready. Not before!”

“Then I suggest you get ready, fast. Things have a tendency to explode around you Shepard. You can’t blame Aria for wanting to know why you’re here,” said the batarian with a shrug.

Shepard groaned, but nodded back. “Give me a sec.” He put his right hand up against his ear. “I’m going to be a while. The Queen of Omega has summoned me. Don’t do anything foolish you two. Understood?”

 _“Understood Commander. We’ll just continue enjoying the scenery,”_ Vega responded from a nearby booth over the radio. Williams looked ready to strangle her superior.

Shepard then turned back to the batarian. “Lead on!”

The batarian led the commander to Aria’s balcony lounge which served as her throne room. As he approached he saw her watching over her domain like a queen, tall and proud wearing a white mini-jacket with a high collar over a skin tight leather outfit that revealed more than a little of her purple skin, a rare colour for an asari. Without turning she immediately noticed his presence. “Good day, Spectre. What brings you to my domain?”

“Just a slaver crew that thought they could do a slave grab in Alliance territory. We’re here to reclaim our people and make sure these slavers don’t get the chance to do it again!” said Shepard evenly. “Does that meet with your approval?”

Aria turned fully towards Commander Shepard and looked him over, her face deceptively neutral, before her lips twisted up into a tiny smile. “The slaver crew that took your people are not directly affiliated with Hotel Afterlife, though I have occasionally done business with them.” She nodded to one of her asari dancers who was shaking her ass next to her couch, a young and petite maiden who couldn’t be more than a century old. “Recently they have been more than a little aggressive with their merchandise. This one was half starved before I bought her six months ago.”

The maiden stiffened slightly at her story being heard, but quickly returned to dancing. Shepard looked her over with a critical eye. “So I see. Not bad for six months of good food and plenty of ‘ _exercise’_.”

“She is a superb specimen,” Aria purred as she ran her hand along the maiden’s spine which made said maiden shiver. “I assume that OSD the bartender gave you has the information you need?”

Shepard tensed up slightly as his right hand drifted closer to one of his pistols, only for a turian guard to unfold an M6 Carnifex and pointed it at his head.

“Relax Shepard. I’ve got a good thing going with the SAI agent. She provides me intel on my rivals and gets to keep her cover as one of my bartenders. Plus she has taught me a thing or two about human drinks,” said Aria as she sipped a dark red drink from a wine glass. “Château Picard, 2150. I’m told it was a very good year.”

Shepard’s right eyebrow rose up at her comment. “I wouldn’t know. I’m more of a scotch and beer man myself. I need to get back to my ship!”

“How about you find yourself a nice girl to curl up to tonight. You look like you could use one,” replied Aria as Shepard left. _Maybe I can provide one,_ she quietly mused as she enjoyed the dancer’s routine.

**(((((((((Soldier VS Spy)))))))))**

**Location: Omega, Gozu district**

Outside a decrepit old warehouse a pair of batarians in soiled brown medium armour stood guard at the tall front door large enough for a corvette to fly into. One of them was smoking a human cigar of all things, much to the disgust of his compatriot.

“How can you stand the stench of that human thing?” asked the non-smoker.

“You’ve obviously never tried a real Cuban cigar,” said the smoker as he took a deep drag of nicotine infused smoke into his lungs, then blew a stream of smoke into his companion’s face. “The one good thing the humans have provided the galaxy.”

The non-smoker coughed at the rancid smell. “Even most humans don’t smoke that shit anymore.”

“See you in hell, you batarian pendejo!” whispered a slightly smirking Lieutenant Vega as he let loose with his grenade launcher. Two high explosive shells zeroed in on the IR signature produced by the cigar and promptly eviscerated the two guards before they knew what hit them and blasted open the front door. “Alright boys, we’ve knocked on their front door. Now we await the welcoming committee.”

The batarians didn’t disappoint. First one batarian with a drawn assault rifle cautiously poked his nose out, then promptly jumped back as he took a few hits from a few assault rifle rounds. He reported back and almost immediately a fusillade of return fire came back at the Alliance Marines from the darkness.

Vega snarled as he switched from his grenade launcher to his assault rifle and returned fire. “Remember boys, don’t give them an inch!” he ordered as he sent a quick three-round burst into a batarian slaver’s skull.

**(((((((((Soldier VS Spy)))))))))**

In the meantime Shepard and Williams skulked around to the back of the warehouse. They quickly found a small back door guarded by a grumpy batarian who was chomping on a batarian cigarette. “Of all the times to be saddled with guarding the back door,” he grumbled as he listened to the sounds of combat emanating from the front door.

Shepard drew a carbon steel combat knife and near silently sidled up against the wall, sticking to the shadows and saving his tactical cloak for the last possible moment while Williams stayed much further back and provided cover with her sniper rifle, an M-97 Viper. As soon as he got a whiff of the batarian’s cigarette he quickly cloaked and moved in quietly. With cold efficiency he grabbed the guard by the head, covered his mouth and stabbed the blade of the knife straight into the soft tissue at the base of his skull, severing both the spinal column and the main artery that supplied blood to his brain and the body quickly and silently died.

Shepard waved Williams forward. She switched from her sniper rifle to an assault rifle, a standard issue M8 Avenger. She narrowed her eyes at the batarian and kicked the dead body for good measure. Shepard in the meantime worked on the door, a rather simple electronic lock which his omni-tool’s hacking programs easily bypassed. With a light click the door opened and the two Alliance Marines entered.

Like most of Omega’s old warehouses it was dark, dirty, and it had the worst kind of smell an old industrial facility could produce. They soon came to an open area, what used to be the main assembly floor, and what they saw chilled them to the bone. Large cages were suspended from the ceiling with heavy duty chains. Within them were dozens of humans of all ages with control collars around their necks with thin strands of wires poking into their heads. Most of them sported a number of bruises and whip marks, mostly to the body. However most of the younger women were relatively unmarked, but they were jittery. Twitching at times as they recovered from the multiple electric shocks the slavers put them through to break them.

It wasn’t long before the slaves noticed the newcomers. All of them were terrified, until both Shepard and Williams both put their weapons away and quietly took their helmets off. Hope rekindled in the eyes of the human slaves and one of the younger children was about to cry for joy, but Ashley quickly put her right index finger to her mouth in the universal gesture of ‘stay quiet’ and the little girl returned it with a shy little smile.

Shepard moved towards the central control console in the centre of the room. He quickly set up a link with the _SSV Sparrow’s_ computer network. _“Confirming comm. link with their control system.”_ said Tali’Zorah, a Quarian he picked up on the Citadel a year previous. _“Such terrible encryption protocols. Should only take a few seconds to turn off the slave collars. Done.”_

A low and short buzz sounded from the collars, signifying their deactivation. Only the pain killer functions were left working, otherwise the slaves would quickly be crying out in agony from the metal wires stuck in their skulls.

At the far end of the warehouse most of the batarian slaver crew was busy fighting the marines at their front door. The marines had pushed into the warehouse itself with Lieutenant Vega leading the way with his shotgun, an M-27 Scimitar with incendiary mode activated, blasting away at any slaver that was stupid enough to crawl out of cover, while the batarians fought back with pistols and assault rifles.

Both Shepard and Williams smirked as they crept up behind the slavers and both readied frag grenades. With a flip of the safety latches they both waited for one second then let the grenades fly. The second the grenades left their hands tiny airfoils flipped out and they sailed above the heads of the batarians. With a sadistic grin both Shepard and Williams detonated the grenades above the tightest concentrations of slavers. Both detonated with a combination of disruptor tech that overloaded shields and weapons and electrocuted any who were unshielded, and splinters of red hot metal shredded both their armour and bodies. Chaos erupted amongst the batarian ranks as both Shepard and Williams blasted away with assault rifle fire, catching the entire batarian slaver crew in a merciless crossfire. In seconds it was all over and only the humans stood standing over the dead and dying batarians.

Shepard then motioned for the rest of the marines forward. “Clear and secure the warehouse. See anymore batarians, shoot them. If you find slaves locked in cages, let them out and call for the medics. For now; let’s get these people out of here.”

**(((((((((Soldier VS Spy)))))))))**

**Location: Omega, Lower Afterlife, a few hours later**

It didn’t take long for Shepard and his marines to get the slaves freed from their slave collars and put them aboard a ship back to Alliance space. Right now it was a time for celebration and Shepard watched from a nearby booth as Vega and the marines drank the night away. He smiled as he pitched back a small glass of scotch, along with Ashley Williams who also drank a shot with him.

“That’s one,” said Ashley with a Cheshire grin on her face as she poured both of them a glass for each of them from a tall rectangular bottle with the Chivas Reguld brand printed on the front. “Let’s see if the big bad spectre can match a lowly gunnery sergeant drink for drink.”

Shepard merely raised an eyebrow as she brought her glass to her lips. He then raised his own and drank down the full contents of his own glass in a single gulp, much to Ashley’s chagrin. “If you’re going to trash talk, you’d better up your game, girl!”

Shepard poured them both another shot each and Ashley immediately downed it. “Hah. I’ve drunk under the table bigger guys than you!”

He accepted her challenge and took the next shot and promptly refilled it. “Be careful, princess. Don’t want you to break a nail.”

“Oh, you did not just say that,” said Ashley with more guts than sense as she took a firm grip of her glass.

“Afraid I did.” He raised his own glass and downed it in another burning gulp.

“Oh, I’m going to enjoy this!” Seconds later she followed suit. “Boom!” she exclaimed with a satisfied and slightly hazy look in her eyes.

Shepard once again refilled both their glasses, to the brim this time. “Let’s see if a Williams can truly hold her liquor, ‘cause I can do this all night long,” he said as he silently thanked the Alliance for his special anti-toxin mods they had him implanted with.

Ashley stared at her almost overflowing glass of scotch in her hand before she took a deep fortifying breath. “You may have to,” she said as she downed the contents of her glass and slipped back into the booth’s couch and promptly passed out, while Shepard calmly sipped at his own pace, happy that Williams’ liver hadn’t been modded like his had been.

“Game over,” he said with a smirk as he gently took away her glass and settled in for a long wait as Ashley slept off the scotch.

From across the nightclub floor a raven haired woman sitting on a barstool by a tall bar table was appraising the Spectre with a calculating eye. She had been watching him for some time and mentally reviewed his file again. Commander John Shepard, N7 Commando and the first human Spectre. Son of Hannah and Michael Shepard, raised mostly by his father as a spacer kid aboard the merchant vessel _MSV Rules of Acquisition_. Graduated at the top of his class from N-School. Led the defence of Elysium and earned the title ‘Lion of Elysium’, a rather pretentious title in her opinion. He later earned his N7 designation at the Battle of Torfan and the batarians bestowed upon him the title of the ‘Butcher of Torfan’. _Not exactly an accurate title according to the Alliance after action report, though no surprise considering the losses the batarians suffered._

She took in the appearance of his drinking buddy and smirked a little. _I see Williams can’t hold her liquor, but Shepard seems to be going strong._ She sipped at her own drink, a lovely Chateau Merlot, then got up from her bar stool and approached his booth.

Shepard almost immediately noticed the vision of beauty heading towards his booth. She wore a skin tight white and black bodysuit and thigh high leather boots with high heels. She stood at roughly six foot tall, and her gait was that of a super model, but also that of a predator. An odd combination. As his eyes roamed her body he noticed that her bodysuit had no identifying tags, no mercenary symbols, so a custom outfit. Very expensive. She wore a small Mona Lisa type smile, but her striking blue eyes conveyed a cold hard edge that immediately put him on his guard. This was a woman you did not want to underestimate.

As she approached a batarian in a bad suit tried a very poor attempt at wooing her. A look of disgust flashed in her eyes and she told him to piss off. With more lust than sense the quad eyed bastard got a little more aggressive. In turn she lifted him up a little with a biotic lift and shoved him back into the bar with bone jarring force. She continued forward, once she was certain that her unwanted suitor wasn’t going to get up.

Shepard let slip a small smirk as she approached his booth. “I like your style.” He stood up a little unsteadily on purpose and reached out with his free left hand. “Commander Shepard of the _SSV Sparrow_.”

She smiled back as she accepted his hand. “Miranda Lawson. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She took a seat on his left, opposite Ashley who was beginning to stir. “Hey Commander, what exactly was in that... who is this?” she asked drunkenly.

Miranda looked over the inebriated marine with a critical eye and quickly found her wanting. “I see Alliance standards have gone down.”

“What’d you say?!” Ashley asked heatedly as she made to stand up, only to promptly fall back down on her ass and nearly fell off the couch.

Shepard waved over one of his marines who seemed to still be quite sober. “Take Williams back to the _Sparrow_. I think she’s had enough for tonight. Put her in my cabin!”

The marine nodded and helped Williams back on her feet, much to her protestation. “I’m fine Commander, I can make my way back on my own,” she said with a slightly drunken slur.

“I don’t think so. Take a nap in my cabin. It’ll do you some good to sleep it off in a real bed,” said Shepard with a no nonsense tone that even the drink addled mind of gunny Williams couldn’t ignore.

“Aye, aye sir,” said Ashley with as much military decorum as she could, though her attempt to stand at attention only made her almost loose her balance again. With a steadying hand she was helped out of Afterlife and out of sight.

Shepard’s gaze then turned towards his new guest. “So, what brings you here, miss Lawson?”

She leaned in a little closer and surreptitiously activated her omni-tool underneath the table. Moments later the spark of a short-circuited listening device sounded. “This should ensure us some privacy, at least for a little while. I believe we have a mutual acquaintance. An L2 biotic named Kaidan Alenko?”

Shepard immediately stiffened at that name and his right hand immediately went to his M6 Carnifex strapped to his right thigh. Just as quickly he felt something thin and pointed poke into his left side just underneath his ribs and in between the thin ceramic plates of his BDU shirt. A quick look immediately identified the item as a double edged stiletto knife and no doubt it was a mono-molecular pointed and edged, and the only identifying mark was the Cerberus logo etched into the metal.

“I should warn you that the last time Cerberus tried to recruit me I fed said recruiter to a hungry pack of vorcha,” said Shepard, much to Miranda’s slight amusement.

“Volker was an idiot and if you hadn’t killed him we would’ve ‘retired’ him, though I don’t think you had to dump fish sauce and sausages on him,” said Miranda with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Shepard merely shrugged. “I only wanted to make him a little more palatable, but if you don’t remove that dagger from my side in the next five seconds I will shoot you dead right here and now!”

“Only if your promise to hear me out. I’m not here to recruit you!”

Both the spy and the soldier stared into each other’s eyes. Neither were willing to back down and were willing to kill the other, but both knew it would be mutually assured destruction. “On three?” Shepard asked and Miranda nodded.

“1,” started Shepard.

“2,” Miranda reciprocated.

“3,” they both said and withdrew their respective weapons.

As soon as Miranda’s stiletto was safely back in its scabbard Shepard replaced his gun back fully into its holster. “Now, before I change my mind, how is our mutual friend?”

“He’s doing well. He’s become one of our better operatives, though most of the time he has been helping to train our own biotics. He’s even taught me a trick or two,” said Miranda as she leaned in close, making Shepard notice her scent, a faint floral smell mixed with her own unique sweat. “The reason I’m here is to warn you. Over the last few weeks we’ve been tracking a number of known batarian agents. The slaver crew that you just took out was one of those groups we traced a particular batarian agent to. Ka’hairal Balak.”

Shepard’s eyes narrowed. “I know that name. Wasn’t he the bastard that commanded the batarian forces on Torfan?”

Miranda nodded back. “The same. He’s currently out of favour with the batarian leadership, no doubt because of you. We believe that he’s planning something big, something to do with Terra Nova. He’s been using whatever political and financial capital he has left to fund and equip a rather large strike force, something that requires at least a frigate’s worth of troops.”

“Have you tried to get this to SAI?” Shepard asked.

“Of course we have, but you know how Intelligence works?! They need to verify the information first before they send it up the chain to fleet command who then sends someone to act on the information. By contacting you directly, an Alliance N7 Operative who is also a Council Spectre, we bypass much of the red tape and save more lives in the process.”

Shepard mulled over his options. “How well do you know Kaidan?”

She smiled at him. “Well enough to know that he likes Ferris Wheel rides.”

That made Shepard’s brow almost rise into his scalp. _That’s our safe word for trusted individuals. If Kaidan trusts this woman I’m willing to go out on a limb for her._ His eye roamed over her skin tight outfit. _Doesn’t hurt that she’s easy on the eyes._

“Alright, I’m willing to look into this, but I need to see everything you have on this operation, right down to the last detail!” said Shepard.

For the first time during this conversation Miranda’s smile actually touched her eyes as she fished out a small OSD from a small pocket that Shepard didn’t see at first. “Here’s everything we know. I suggest you look it over in the morning, I think you deserve a little fun after today’s performance.”

With the slinky grace of a cat she stood up and walked away, with Shepard’s eyes locked onto her butt which just did not quit. He almost jumped out of his seat when he caught the scent of asari perfume, a very potent aphrodisiac for humans. His suspicions were rewarded with the sight of an athletic asari with a pale blue complexion and wearing a skimpy red dancers outfit.

“Complements of Hotel Afterlife, Commander,” the asari purred as she produced a clean glass and poured herself a good couple of fingers worth of his scotch and took a sip. “I am Kietse!”

Shepard smiled as he took another sip from his still half full glass as Kietse sat down next to him, giving him a good view of her cleavage that threatened to explode out of her too tight outfit. “Nice to know the queen appreciates good workmanship.”

He almost jumped once again as her hands began to wander up his trouser clad inner thighs. “Shall we go somewhere more private? The club has a set of private rooms for special guests,” she purred softly in his ear.

He let a broad smile show his teeth as he took in her beauty. “Lead on!” he ordered.

**(((((((((Soldier VS Spy)))))))))**

The private room that his asari pet led him to could best be described with one word. Red. The walls were painted a deep burgundy, the carpet was red and furry, and the bed was draped in a red bedspread. Kietse sauntered in and struck an alluring pose and Shepard smirked as he took in her full captivating body that was still in her skin tight outfit. She smirked back as she leaned up against a wall and began pawing at her breasts, making them jiggle which further strained her outfit to near breaking point, and Shepard’s iron will finally snapped.

In a few long strides Shepard crossed the room and began to kiss her senselessly as his hands wandered her body. Kietse was surprised by Shepard’s aggressiveness and was momentarily overwhelmed. She started to glow blue as she used her biotics to shred her outfit and push him away, revealing her full blue skinned glory. To his surprise Kietse’s breasts were larger than he thought. _That outfit couldn’t have been very comfortable, especially for that rack of hers,_ he mused to himself as he licked his lips.

She reached up and stretched her body, revelling in the freedom her practically tortured breasts now felt, letting Shepard get a good look at them. They were definitely a fairly large D-cup with large areolas and hard nipples that seemed to be leaking along with her engorged azure as lines of moisture ran down her legs.

Shepard approached again, stripping off his shirt while Kietse kneeled down and took off his trousers. Once they were off she smiled at the large bulge in his boxers. “Lovely, good to know you live up to the legend.” She then took down his boxers and got smacked in the face by a solid seven inch dick for her trouble, smearing a solid dollop of pre-cum across her lips. Without thinking she licked her lips and got a good taste of it. “Mmhm, tasty,” she smirked up at him, which he returned.

“How about you put that mouth of yours to work!” he ordered. She teasingly licked around the head while cupping and gently massaging his ball sack. She began to lightly suck at the sensitive head which made Shepard go slightly weak in the knees. He took hold of her head and began to gently massage her head crest near the nape of the neck where a particularly sensitive nerve cluster is located. Kietse moaned in delight and took a good half of Shepard’s length into her mouth, making him moan in turn.

Shepard smiled down at Kietse who looked back with a mischievous look in her eyes. She took a deep breath through the nose and took his full length down her mouth and into her throat, causing him to moan in delight. “Oh Aria, you’ve picked a damned good one for me.”

From the shadows a purple skinned asari stepped out. “She is one of my best. I should know, I trained her.” Shepard instantly recognised the voice as being Aria’s.

“I wondered if I peaked you interest,” said Shepard cockily at her as he gently pulled Kietse off his cock, letting her gasp for air. “You gonna join us?”

She smirked back. “Not yet. I want to see your performance with my pet first. Maybe I’ll join you, but remember Omega’s one rule. Don’t fuck with Aria!”

“You want a show? I’ll give you one. Get back to work Kietse!” Shepard said as he reinserted his cock into Kietse’s mouth who swallowed it down eagerly. “Did she train on krogan? Her throat is delightfully responsive,” he asked.

Aria smirked at his question. “No, I trained her specifically to please interesting humans, mostly by having her meld with ‘experienced’ human women.”

“Then she’s learned well,” said Shepard as he began to move his hips back and forth, fucking her mouth and throat with greater force with each thrust. As he thrust harder and harder Kietse found it difficult to breathe through her nose as he thrust his pubic bone into her face. He quickly reached his limit and blasted Kietse’s face with a trio of long ropes across her panting face.

Kietse immediately began to lick up Shepard’s cum with a glassy look in her eyes while a still clothed Aria approached. “How does he taste?”

Kietse smiled back dreamily. “Taste him yourself,” she said as she offered up a cum covered finger to Aria.

Aria tentatively sniffed in the scent of Shepard’s cum and licked it up. Apparently she liked it as she lapped it up like a kitten with a bowl of cream. “You’ve passed the taste test. Now let’s see if you’ve got the stamina.” She immediately pounced on his slightly deflated and sensitive cock, surprising both him and Kietse with her eagerness. In almost no time at all fresh blood flowed into his previously spent member as Aria licked up the remnants of his previous eruption.

Shepard quickly got over his surprise and promptly took control. “If you think you’re in control here you’re sadly mistaken. Strip her!” he ordered as he kept Aria down on her knees with a tight grip on her head.

To Aria’s surprise Kietse obeyed. She carefully stripped off Aria’s white mini-jacket. She allowed Kietse only that one liberty before she fired off a pulse of biotic energy which pushed both Kietse and Shepard away from her. She then used stasis on both of them. “You stay put!” Aria stripped off her leather outfit slowly, revealing her own glorious, athletic, purple body, revelling in her captive audience’s undivided attention.

Aria then turned back to Shepard who had landed on the bed. “You are about to learn a very important lesson. You don’t fuck Aria, Aria fucks you!” She crawled up next to Shepard, who was still stasis locked. “I said I wanted to see if you had stamina, I did not say I wanted to be dominated.” Aria extended her arm towards Kietse and used her biotics to pull her towards the bed. “You see that both her tits and azure are leaking? You know what that signifies?”

“That she’s horny?” Shepard guessed.

“Not just horny. She’s just turned 350 years old and has hit the matron stage and her body is now yearning to breed. She was one of my best and most profitable maidens, but now that she’s become a matron it’s time for her to retire. I have chosen you as her stud.” Aria smiled devilishly as her fingernails enticingly ran over his cock and scrotum. “Do you find the proposition interesting?”

Shepard tried to turn his head, but the stasis held fast. “You mind cancelling the stasis, at least around my head?”

Aria nodded and a moment later Shepard’s head was free. He turned his head towards the still floating Kietse and saw the hungry and hopeful look in her eyes. He turned back to Aria, looking over her body with a hungry eye. “Is your purple butt part of the package?”

Aria smirked back. “Of course.” She released them both from stasis. “But not before Kietse gets bred.”

With an excited shriek Kietse jumped on the bed and sunk her wet azure on Shepard’s cock, shocking both as Shepard felt her tightness while Kietse gasped at his girth. Feeling him in her mouth and throat was very different to the fullness she felt in her azure. His cock scraped along every sensitive nerve cluster that lined the inside of her dark blue cunt as she raised herself up and down. She looked deeply into Shepard’s eyes as she uttered, “Embrace eternity!” and her eyes turned inky black.

All sensations were shared between the two and Kietse leaned down, getting as much body contact as she could with Shepard. Her mind and body delved into Shepard’s own, climaxing multiple times as genetic information flowed into Kietse’, triggering her eggs to drop into her womb and biotic energies to shape and meld the information she gathered from both herself and her mate. She could feel herself conceiving her child in her womb and climaxed hard, making Shepard explode within her, coating her azure in white human cum. As her climax subsided she broke the meld and rolled to the side with the biggest grin on her face.

“Thank you so much for this,” said Kietse as she kissed him on the cheek, panting as she leaned back.

Aria on the other hand wasn’t willing to wait for Shepard to recover on his own. Blue biotic fields flowed over Shepard’s body, electrifying his nerves and forcing fresh blood into his penis. “Now I want a piece of some human cock, and you Commander have impressed me. Let’s see how you handle a matriarch.”

Aria’s body was engulfed in blue biotic energies, making it seem like she was wreathed in blue fire as she lowered her mouth to Shepard’s cock, tasting both Kietse’s juices and his cum, becoming addicted to the combination as it hi her tongue.

Shepard fully reenergised by Aria’s biotic display decided to break Omega’s One Rule. “Let’s see how your ass feels like!” With that Shepard rose up and manhandled Aria onto all fours, making her butt stick up and present itself to him.

“But first some more lubrication.” He inserted his cock into her azure first, making her gasp as the wind was knocked out of her lungs for a second, with him thrusting a few times before withdrawing completely and savagely entered her ass. The Queen of Omega shrieked as she felt the biggest intruder in three centuries invade her ass, making her eyes go cross eyed as she went through a series of climaxes she hadn’t felt in a long time.

“If you think this is going to be enough you’re gravely mistaken,” stated Aria as she squeezed Shepard’s dick hard, making him groan in pain.

“And you don’t have the tightest nor the strongest ass in the galaxy,” stated Shepard as he mauled her breasts with his hands, slapping and squeezing them hard.

Aria gritted her teeth as her eyes turned black and biotic energies swirled around both her and Shepard, melding their nervous systems together and Shepard shared everything she felt, including how it felt to lactate.

“Looks like Kietse is not the only one seeking a stud.” Shepard pulled out of her ass, yet kept himself wrapped up around her, maintaining the connection. “Is that what you want?” Shepard asked as he managed to manhandle Aria onto her back and laid himself over her.

Aria grabbed the sides of Shepard’s face and brought him nose to nose with her. “Yes!” She smashed her lips into his and slipped her tongue in as Shepard gripped his cock and aligned it with her azure and slipped in. He pumped in hard and pulled out slowly, repeating several times until both came, with Aria letting loose her biotics in a swirling miasma around them as she felt him cream buckets inside her, feeling her womb fill with white human spunk, coating the rapidly forming foetus, marking her as his.

“Imagine a newly matured matriarch taking a human as a mate,” Aria said with an exhausted smirk. “In two months I will have yet another daughter, and Kietse will have her first by the same man. Like mother, like daughter,” she whispered into his ear as both snuggled into Shepard’s sides and all three settled in for a long sleep.

**(((((((((Soldier VS Spy)))))))))**

**Codex: Cerberus Dossier; Staff Commander John Shepard**

**Pre-service History**

Born in 2150 Shepard grew up as a spacer kid on an independent merchant ship. Both parents were Alliance military, his father was a reservist and commanded the merchant ship _MSV_ _Rules of Acquisition_. His mother continued her career and managed to reach the rank of Captain, commanding the _SSV_ _Orizaba_ by 2185. Shepard grew up on the _Rules of Acquisition_ with his father, for the most part. He only saw his mother three months out of a year and even less when he joined the Alliance Military.

**Service History**

Shepard followed his parents footsteps, though instead of the Naval track he went for the Special Forces track and became one of the greatest N7 Navy Commandoes that ever graduated from the program. He had only been a month into his N6 portion of his career when the Skyllian Blitz in 2176 happened while he was on leave on Elysium. He rallied several marines and locals and held a vital strategic position until the Alliance managed to rout the pirates. His deeds earned him the title Lion of Elysium.

Two years later he was part of an infiltration team of several N6 squads on Torfan to disable the pirates ground-to-space cannons and GARDIAN defence towers. They succeeded, but were discovered before they could leave, and so dug in and held out for almost ten straight hours against hordes of pirates. When the Alliance forces finally managed to relieved them, all but Shepard and his commanding officer, Major Kyle, had perished and had reaped a terrible toll on the pirates, surrounded by the cooling corpses of various species of pirate, mostly batarians who had their heads blown off.

Once again Shepard was hailed as a hero by the Alliance, but to the batarians he is known as the Butcher of Torfan. Afterwards he was elevated to N7 and placed under the command of Captain David Anderson, who commanded the _SSV Hastings_ , an Alliance frigate. He commanded the _Hastings’_ ground team. He eventually became Captain Anderson’s XO when he received command of the _Normandy_ in 2183, and later was up for a position in the Spectres.

The mission to Eden Prime was the first of many missions together with Agent Nihlus Kryik and after a year of joint field ops which took them across the known galaxy Shepard became the first human Spectre, and has since been on several counter-ops against Cerberus, pirates and slavers.

He took part in the battle of the Citadel with Nihlus, C-Sec sniper Garrus Vakarian and the Krogan Battle Master Urdnot Wrex. They fought their way from Zakera Ward to the Council where they encountered Saren, who was leading the Geth Heretics in their attack on the Citadel. He had been transformed into something between a cybernetic monster and a turian, indoctrinated into believing that by taking the Citadel he was paving the way for the rebirth of something he called the Reapers. A hard battle followed which saw the death of Nihlus at Saren’s hands followed by Saren’s after being paralyzed by a shotgun blast to the back and having a support beam land on top of his head.


	2. Ch2: Asteroid Troubles, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, and I've been wrestling with this chapter for the last few months, so I've decided to post what I have at the moment and try to get some feedback from my readers, if there are any. I've also updated chapter 1, mostly just some edits and a little addition.
> 
> Enjoy :)

“Speech”

 _Thoughts_ and _ship names_

_“Radio communications”_

** Soldier VS Spy **

**Ch2: Asteroid Trouble**

**Omega: Private Dock**

A tired, but thoroughly sated Commander Shepard walked up the long gangway to his corvette. The _Sparrow_ was smaller than the _Normandy_ and packed a lesser punch, but she was even quicker, quieter, more manoeuvrable and had the best pilot in the Alliance at the helm,which he poached from his old ship. As he walked through the airlock he instantly recognised Joker with his signature cap and wore a smirk that shone through his bearded face.

“Permission to come aboard?” Shepard ritualistically asked.

“Permission granted. I heard you had a little fun with one of the queen’s party favours last night, is it true?” Joker asked.

“Joker, I’m a gentleman. I never kiss and tell,” said Shepard with the most innocent smile he could muster.

“Gentleman my ass. I’ve seen that look before, you got some serious luck last night! Come on, just admit it,” Joker whined.

“But if I tell you everything and you talk the Queen of Omega would be most displeased with me which means I’ll be displeased. Get the picture?” Shepard grinned as his best helmsman squirmed in his regulation plastic foam seat.

“Fine. Keep your secrets and your threats to yourself.” Shepard nodded at Joker’s answer and left the bridge. He could hear Joker’s faint grumbling as he passed through the tiny CIC, a standard circular human setup with a tactical holo-tank in the centre and consoles arrayed along the walls. He was thankful that it was mostly deserted, except for a couple of young ensigns, a man and a woman, who instantly stopped chatting and stood to attention.

“At ease Jenkins, Hargrove. How’s the ground team doing this fine morning?” Shepard asked of the two.

“Hung over, sir,” replied Ensign Hargrove. “Gunnery Chief Williams is still sacked out in your quarters. Beta shift and Doctor Anspaugh’s nurses spent all night watching over the ground team in their sleep pods to make sure none of them choked on their own vomit.”

“Lieutenant Vega hasn’t woken up yet?” Shepard asked.

“No sir,” replied Ensign Jenkins. “The lieutenant woke up half an hour ago and has been using the ship’s galley to cook himself a rather sizable English Breakfast for the ground team. Something about a good meal being the cure for hangovers or something like that.”

Shepard smirked at his ground team number two man’s habit. “Carry on ensigns. I’ll be in my quarters.”

“Aye sir,” the two ensigns chorused. As soon as the starboard hatchway, which led to the crew section of the _Sparrow_ , closed the two ensigns sighed in relief.

“Good god, did you smell that, Jenkins?” Ensign Hargrove asked slightly out of breath, her heart pounding.

“Yeah, the Spectre got lucky last night,” replied Jenkins with a slightly hung head. “Judging by the smell I bet he got lucky with a pair of Asari.”

**(((((((((Soldier VS Spy)))))))))**

Shepard smirked slightly as he saw the half undressed Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams sacked out in his bed and slightly drooling on his pillow. At the sound of the door opening and closing Ash stirred awake.

“Oh god, what am I doing in here?” she asked with a groan. “Is it morning already?”

“It sure is. I suggest you take a shower Ash, you’ll feel a whole lot better.”

She gasped as she realized who had entered and quickly stood at attention and saluted her commander. “Sir, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know this was your bunk. I’ll clean it up as soon as I clean myself...” she exclaimed before a bout of nausea came over her half naked form, turning her usual dark tan complexion slightly green.

“Oh no you don’t,” said Shepard as he quickly grabbed and frog marched her over to the tiny bathroom in his quarters. She practically dived for the toilet while he held back her hair, normally done up in a tight bun formerly cascading around the face, as she felt the resultant acidic bile of yesterday’s activities come back up the wrong way, along with what felt like everything she had eaten for the past twelve years. In moments it was over and Ashley lay panting on her knees.

“I’m sorry skipper.”

“No worries Ash, you’re not the first crewman I’ve helped.” He poured a glass of water and plucked a couple of small capsules from a pack in his medicine cabinet. “Water and oxy pills, should get you over the nausea, though I can’t say it will cure your hangover quickly.”

Ashley quickly downed the oxy pills and water in one gulp. Immediately her stomach settled, her skin returned to its normal colour and she stood up to her full height, displaying her muscular trim figure and firm C-cup breasts with dark areola. Despite the fact that Shepard had a sexual marathon just a few hours earlier he still formed a sizable tent in his trousers at the sight.

“Care to join me in the shower?” Shepard asked.

Ashley gave him a wicked smile as she dropped her BDU trousers, and with them her regulation panties, to the deck. “Let’s get that scent of asari off of you, skipper.”

Shepard nearly tore his clothing to pieces in the process as he followed Ashley. The two of them entered the shower with his lips on hers and water automatically came down on the both of them, rinsing both hot bodies with ice cold water before it heated up, instantly putting the kibosh on their lust. Shepard instantly deflated and Ashley’s heat rapidly cooled and both gasped in shock as the icy water hit their heated skin.

“Forgot that I set my shower to blast me with cool water to wake me up in the mornings first before it heats up,” said Shepard with an apologetic smile.

“That’s alright, sir, so long as you didn’t go around with that femme fatale last night,” said Ashley as she began scrubbing his backside.

“No, but she did give me some intel about a possible batarian pirate raid.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed at that. “Is she an undercover SAI agent?”

“No, something much worse. A Cerberus operative.” That stopped Ashley’s ministrations cold.

“A Cerberus operative?” Shepard nodded back as his soapy hands slowly ran down her back and he took the opportunity to feel up her heart shaped butt, causing her to gasp. “Stop distracting me.”

“Can you stop being sexy?” Shepard bit back as his erection rose up again, stabbing at Ashley’s abdomen.

She ignored it and focused on his face. “What does Cerberus want with a Spectre?”

“Most likely because I’m the only human Spectre in existence, and I’ll probably investigate the intel she brought me anyway, regardless of where it comes from.” His hands continued to run up and down Ashley’s body and her ministrations started up again.

“What if it’s a Cerberus trap?” she asked worriedly. “They might want revenge for what you did to that recruiter.”

“Then the best way to defeat it is to know it’s there and prepare for it accordingly. As soon as everyone is fully awake we’ll go over the intel. For now,” he shut off the water. “Let’s play.”

With a gentle push Shepard moved Ashley’s mouth over his rapidly reformed erection which she eagerly began to lick the head of. Precum began to leak and she lapped it up like a tasty sauce. Shepard let out a soft moan as Ashley’s tongue teased the sensitive head and he ran his hands through her wet dark brown hair. As he looked back down for an instant in his mind’s eye Ashley’s face was replaced by Miranda’s, sucking down his erection like a it was the sweetest candy.

Shepard blinked away the mental image and focused on Ashley’s brown eyes, imposing his own indomitable will on her own. “You love it, don’t you gunny?”

Ashley hummed in agreement, sending a potent vibration through Shepard’s cock. He took hold of her head in a firm grip and changed the angle of both her head and his cock. “Then have some more.” He proceeded to pump his cock forcefully down Ashley’s throat, surprising her with his viciousness and she gagged hard on it, unable to breathe. Shepard continued to fuck her throat with a savage glee, making Ashley’s face turn red with heavy breathing as she tried to suck in precious oxygen through her nose, but it was mashed up against Shepard’s abdomen.

Shepard tore his cock away from Ashley’s mouth, leaving her gasping for air as he spun her around and lifted her back up on her shaky legs. Shepard bent his knees and lined up for a straight up insertion into Ashley’s cunt and thrust deep inside her molten core, knocking what little air was left in Ashley’s lungs. She clawed at the shower-stall’s slippery wet metal walls, trying desperately to get a grip, but Shepard was relentless. He then grabbed Ashley by the hair with his right hand and pulled her body close to his while his left arm went around her body just underneath her breasts, causing Ashley’s pussy to tighten up and quiver as she came hard on his cock, while he delighted in cupping her right breast in his left hand, pinching her nipple hard and making her scream in both pain and delight.

“Let’s take this to the bedroom,” growled Shepard as he roughly pulled out of his lover and put her over his shoulder.

“Put me down, Skipper,” she shrieked, and Shepard slapped her ass.

“Sure, I’ll put you down, right here.” Shepard deposited Ashley’s wet body on his bed, making her breasts jiggle with the impact and forced the air from her lungs as he followed her down onto the bed, kissing her forcefully on the lips as he opened up her legs. “Now for a little taste of home.” He descended down, licking between her breasts, down her belly then between her legs and licked along her inner thighs, teasing her outer pussy lips, making Ashley moan in near ecstasy.

“Please Shepard, stop teasing and make me cum!”

In response he nibbled on her clit, making her cry out in ecstasy and squirted her juices all over Shepard’s face and back. She panted hard as she came down from her high, but Shepard was still hard and ready. He stood over her on his hands and knees and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

“If you think we’re done, you are sadly mistaken.” Shepard then proceeded to shove his hard dick inside Ashley’s still hyper-sensitive cunt and began to pump her hard and fast, making her scream her heart out.

“Please, please slow down, it’s too much!”

Shepard smirked down at Ashley as he continued to pump into her slightly slower. “Are you sure that’s what you want?” he began to nibble a little on her right nipple. “I fucked the queen of Omega last night and one of her daughters, and they asked me to be their mate.”

This brought Ashley up short. “What!”

Shepard nodded. “And I bred them both, they’re now carrying my asari daughters.”

Ashley’s eyes became slits as she brought her legs up and hooked them into Shepard’s thighs. “Harder Shepard. Put your cum inside me!” she demanded, and Shepard complied.

“You’re want to carry a baby for me?”

She shook her head. “No, not yet. I’m going to show you I’m better than any asari whore!” She rose up and gave him a deep tongue filled kiss. “You can imagine knocking me up, but I’m not ready. I want to make officer before I get pregnant with my first, but know this Skipper. For sperm donors you are at the very top of my list.” Shepard grinned back at her as he began to pump into her again. As he increased the pace she kissed him hard and Shepard let loose his passions and pumped into her cunt harder, encouraged by her squeezing her legs into his, making him go deeper with every pump until he punched his cock past her cervix. Shepard began to groan with greater volume as he felt his balls begin to tingle and contract.

“Here I cum, Ash!” he groaned as he felt the rush of cum run up his dick and eject forcefully into Ashley’s cunt.

“Yes, fuck me Skipper!” she cried as she felt his cum explode deep inside her womb which set her off again and Shepard collapsed next to her, both hot, sweaty and panting heavily.

“Look at us, all hot and sweaty once again." He smirked at her as he still felt buzz, while Ash merely gave a tired smile. "On your feet marine, let’s get cleaned up,” ordered Shepard as he pulled her back up to her feet.

“Yes sir,” she shakily replied as they walked back to their shower.

**(((((((((Soldier VS Spy)))))))))**

**Omega: Apartment Block D, #221**

A barely satisfied Miranda Lawson watched as her latest one-night-stand via IPartners left her rented apartment. Sure, the sex had been good, it was always good thanks to the genetic modifications done to her body by her father, yet while all her partners had only barely been able to physically satisfy her, there was no emotional satisfaction. Besides this was only part of her current cover, that of Ariel Solheim. A rich jetsetter and business woman who was taking advantage of Omega’s unique business opportunities and getting a little fun on the side to expand Cerberus’s network of contacts among the galaxy’s alien lawless elements. Not that that those aliens knew who they were really dealing with.

With a sigh she opened up a holo-screen with her omni-tool, checking the bug she planted on the commander’s uniform and quickly reviewed the footage. Miranda smiled as she watched Shepard’s prowess with the two asari and smirked as Shepard, despite Aria’s best efforts, dominated the asari crime lord’s ass. Her own pussy tingled as she watched the show, but it quickly stopped as a chime sounded from her omni-tool. She hastily put on a blouse and shut down the recording, only for it to be replaced by the visage of the Illusive Man.

_“Operative Lawson, report.”_

“I have made contact with Commander Shepard, sir, and I have given him the data. His ship’s departure time has been moved up to midday today, so I believe he is acting upon the data,” Lawson reported with no emotion showing through her mask of professionalism.

The Illusive Man nodded. _“Very good, Operative Lawson. Once he has completed his mission I want you to approach him again. Use whatever means you deem necessary to get him on our side. A man of his talents is wasted as just a Spectre.”_ He lit up a cigarette, pulled deeply and let out a long stream of smoke.

Miranda was thankful to be on the other side of a comm. channel and not having to breath in that disgusting nicotine infused smoke into her perfect lungs. “By your command, sir.”

The Illusive Man nodded back and closed the channel.

Miranda breathed a sigh of relief and turned the monitor back on, getting back to the Shepard and the horny Asari show. She let her hand wander down to her pussy and gently rubbed her clit as she enjoyed the moans and yelps of the asari, imagining herself in their position, under Shepard. “Oh yes, this is going to be fun.”

**(((((((((Soldier VS Spy)))))))))**

**SSV Sparrow; On approach to Asteroid X57**

A pensive Commander Shepard looked over the tactical plot being displayed on the central holo-tank in the centre of the CIC. Distress signals had just begun to be sent from Terra Nova, and just like the Cerberus Operative’s intel had said, something big was going down on X57. LIDAR and long range optical cameras had identified a pair of Ravager MK. IIIs, a mercenary corvette of batarian make, docked near the main mining facility with no military or mercenary identifying markings.

“VI, status report on the Asteroid X57s course and speed,” Shepard ordered.

“Working,” said the ship’s VI in its generic female voice. “Asteroid X57 is on a collision course with planet Terra Nova. Three fusion torches have been activated and are accelerating the asteroid. Time to point of no return, one hour, thirty minutes.”

“Looks like everything that spook gave you panned out Loco, but this is way beyond a slave grab,” said Vega as he studied the battle-map.

“I agree skipper, I suggest we conduct a long range mass accelerator attack on the torches,” said Ashley.

“Not an option, gunny. Those torches are sitting right on top of massive hydrogen fuel tanks. We destroy those torches, we destroy not only half the asteroid, but we also accelerate it harder towards the planet, potentially increasing the devastation. We’re going to have to do this the hard way,” said Shepard as he straightened up. “Suit up and prep the MACO, we move out in 5.”

Minutes later the _Sparrow_ flew in low and fast, opened the ventral hatch and the MACO was lowered down into drop position with a magnetic grapple. The grapple reversed its polarity and pushed the MACO away. The asteroid’s natural gravity took over and pulled the MACO down slowly and it landed with barely a strain to its suspension, though the rough terrain made the ride a little rough.

“Damn it Skipper, could you please not run over every little boulder on this rock?” Ashley pleaded as she was bounced around in her seat, along with the rest of the team.

“I guess the maintenance crews are going to have to fix the suspension when we get back. It’s definitely out of whack. Tali, make a note for the maintenance crew, make sure they fix the damned suspension.” Tali merely nodded back, opting to keep her mouth shut, lest she lose her lunch inside her helmet.

“I love it!” exclaimed Lieutenant Vega from his position in the gun turret’s seat as the MACO jumped over a hill, right before landing in front of a missile launcher. “Don’t love it!” he shouted as he fired the main gun, blasting the launcher to bits, just as another launcher opened fire.

“Looks like whoever fired up the fusion torches set up a few surprises for us,” said Shepard as he reversed the MACO, taking only one missile to the shields while Vega turned the gun to fire on the next launcher. Another blast sounded from the main gun and a second launcher was destroyed. “Williams, how many of those launchers did they set up?”

Gunny Williams looked down at the scanner. “LIDAR detects seven launchers, we’ve destroyed two. Sending coordinates to you LT.”

“I see them,” said Vega as he turned the turret towards the closest launcher as Shepard drove the MACO forward again to avoid another barrage behind a small hill, blocking Vega’s shot. “Damn it, I need a better angle.”

“Well then, time for something a little crazy. Hang on everyone!” Shepard floored the accelerator and the MACO rushed forward as quickly as its wheels could turn, digging into the dusty ground of the asteroid as it raced across the surface. Missiles rocketed at them from five different directions while Vega let loose with the chain gun, putting a solid two second burst into a launcher, cooking off its magazine’s munitions, turned the turret and fired a cannon round into another launcher. Brief explosions of dirt followed in the MACO’s wake, shaking the interior even more badly. The turret spun around again and fired, blasting a launcher into space dust with a cannon shell, another burst of chain-gun fire took out another. The last launcher was situated at the top of the hill above the control building with an added attraction. It was shielded.

Vega growled lowly to himself as he let off a long burst of fire, bringing down the launcher’s shields before firing off a cannon shell, destroying the launcher, but not before it launched a barrage of missiles at the MACO, impacting both the ground around the IFV and its shields, weakening, but not breaching them.

“Well, that was bracing. Let’s get to work on shutting down that torch,” said Shepard as he turned back to Tali. “Anything?”

Tali was rapidly typing away at her terminal. “Just a second. I’ve hacked into the control building’s security system.” She brought up a number live camera feeds and for the first time they saw the face of the enemy.

“Batarian bastards!” Shepard growled as his hands tightened into fists, straining the materials of the combat gloves. “Let’s go!” He made a few final checks as he fastened his combat helmet on and Ashley checked his seals. With a quick double tap on the helmet Ashley let him know he was good to go while another marine checked her suit’s seals. Once everyone’s seals had been checked the MACO’s side doors were opened and the eight man squad left and headed for the building with Shepard taking point with his custom Mattock in hand. The door opened with little fuss and Vega took the trailing position and subsequently closed the door behind him. Atmosphere began to pump into the airlock with a faint hiss.

Tali checked air-quality with her omni-tool and saw with alarm that it turned red. “Don’t unseal your armour. The batarians have released a poison gas into the life-support system. It’s harmless to batarians, but deadly to humans.”

“Poison gas? How cute,” said Ashley with a shake of her head as she made an adjustment to her rifle.

Shepard snorted as he set his team up for a simple door breach at the inner airlock door. He readied a frag grenade as Vega stood at one side of the door with his shotgun ready while Ashley took the other with her hand hovering over the door controls with her heavy pistol in the other.

“Standby to breach in three, two, one!” Shepard counted down and three things happened in rapid succession. Ashley opened the door, Shepard tossed in the grenade and moved to the side, brief bursts of weapons fire came back through the inner airlock door and finally the grenade detonated, shredding a pair of shotgun totting batarians with red hot shrapnel at the same time as blinding every batarian looking at said door on the other side.

Shepard ran in with short bursts of rifle fire, downing and suppressing any batarians as he found in cover followed closely by Ashley and Vega. Another batarian decided to poke his head out of cover and Vega downed him with a shotgun blast to the head. What came next around the corner shocked the marines. A four legged creature roughly the size of a large Alsatian, with the leathery skin of a reptile with wicked fangs the size of daggers. Their batarian masters barked orders and the creatures charged.

“Varren charging!” Ashley called out as she put out a burst of rifle fire into one of the varren, perforating its skull with armour piercing rounds making it drop to the floor. Shepard did the same to another, only with inferno rounds, making the varren desperately roll on the ground in a futile attempt to put the flames out, catching two other varren on fire, breaking the varrens charge.

“Push forward!” Shepard bellowed as he and the marines moved up, putting the varren out of their misery and took out the batarian varren handler with a short burst of fire. It was obvious the batarians hadn’t been here long, considering they hadn’t managed to put away some of the more dangerous canisters or set them up as IEDs. Two batarian engineers were standing next to a small fuel cell and Shepard put a couple of inferno rounds into it, exploding into a brief inferno that burned the batarians to a crisp.

Shepard checked his suit’s built-in scanner via his helmet’s HUD, no other life-signs other than the team’s own IFF tagged ones. “Let’s find the control room for the Fusion Torch,” he said as he led the way up to the second floor with Ash and Vega following in his wake, keeping a weather eye out for any hidden enemies.

After they cleared the second floor Shepard found the control console for the Fusion Torch. “Tali, check for any possible sabotage, then shut down the torch,” Shepard ordered and the Quarian leapt to work. With a rapid series of keystrokes with her omni-tool she scanned the console remotely. “It’s clean Shepard, no booby traps or any other signs of sabotage.” She then used the main console to shut down the fusion torch and the almost imperceptible vibration of the torch died down to nothing.

 _“Hello, is there anyone out there?”_ came a young woman’s voice over the comm. system. _“I know you shut down the Fusion Torch and I can hear you over the comms.”_

Shepard stepped closer to the pickup. “This is Commander Shepard of the SSV Sparrow, who is this?”

 _“My name is Kate Bowman, I’m an engineer working on the X57 Asteroid Project. The Batarians invaded just a few hours ago. They’ve killed most of us.”_ Kate’s voice sounded strained and Shepard tried to calm her.

“Kate, take a deep breath and calm down.” He waited for a few moments, listening for the deep breaths of the woman on the other end. “That’s it, very good. Now, tell me about the batarians, numbers, weapons, abilities, anything you can tell us.”

 _“Okay, I can do that. They came here with at least thirty men. Most of them came here to the main complex, but only a few of them stayed. The rest have taken three of the fusion torches, one of which you just shut down. You have to shut down the other two, their accelerating us towards Terra Nova.”_ Her voice hitched. _“I’ve gotta go.”_

“Well, at least we know how many of these pendejos we have to take down,” said Lieutenant Vega as he checked his shotgun.

“Yeah, and if they’ve split themselves up evenly between the torches and the main complex, we shouldn’t have much more trouble than we had here,” said Ashley.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we’ve still got two more torches to shut down, and we can now bet that the batarians will now be on alert,” rebutted Commander Shepard. “Tali, lock down the console and vent the atmosphere to clear out the gas. We’ll keep it in vacuum until we’ve cleared out the batarians.”

“Understood Shepard,” said Tali as she worked the console. Moments later there was a whoosh as the atmosphere got sucked out into space, taking with it every cubic inch of poison gas into the vacuum of space.


End file.
